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Ok, I love experimenting on my hair but I am not, I repeat, I am not gifted in making my hair look good in anything out of my usual comfort zone of some basic twistsand crochet braids. I usually employ friends or my hair stylists to do more involved hair styles from anything like bantu knotsto box braids. So I think after my great success in doing crochet braids by myself, on the cheap, I think I became a little overconfident in my hair making abilities. I attempted Yarn Braids a few weeks ago and it went horribly wrong and was also a waste of my time and money. I didn’t take pictures of the failed attempts because it was just that bad. I was anticipating on wearing them for New Year’s Eve the night before I was leaving and I was greatly disappointed to find at 11pm that this style was not going to work for any night of the year.

I was inspired to do yarn braids from my friend lizadidall who is also very experimental with her hair. The video I was using to do the yarn braids was:

It seemed so easy to do and I always wanted imitation locs/dreds without actually locing my hair. I did everything right, bought two bundles of acrylic black yarn ($10), sized it out and cut the first bundle up (1hr of work), and washed/conditioned/protein treatment my hair.

This is where I think I went wrong:

Assumed my hair texture was okay for this hairstyle: my hair is 4b/4c, dry, really kinky and tangly, and fine; my ends also tend to not be as manageable in terms of relying on them to curl on their own or be soft (mind you I did get my hair trimmedseveral weeks earlier) but despite that my hair was poofing out between the yarn strands I was braiding in. When I came to the end of the braid there was like a poof ball that was sticking out making the braid uneven and look horrible! I tried re-oiling/moisturizing the ends and it still had this poof puff at the end sticking out the braid

The yarn strands made the lengths uneven: Although I was using three strands of yarn to braid into my hair, when I came to the end of my real hair there was a noticeable difference between the yarn braided in with my real hair and the yarn braided after that – just looked tacky and just icky. On top of that six of the braids I attempted were all varying lengths despite the fact I cut the yarn evenly.

After about an hour of figuring out how to do six yarn braids I decided to take them out which took an additional hour, so I guess it was a blessing in disguise because if I had put yarn braids throughout my head it would of taken a full day to take down. I don’t think I will attempt this style again even with a stylist because of the dreadful take down process. Instead I think I want to try the wrap locs method with a professional stylist when I am not on swim season.

As I mentioned in my blog post (peep link in bio above) there was a time I was WRAPPING each individual Loc to do faux locs...and it took me 12 hours to complete! 😭Anyway a mix of the crochet method with some individuals is really the best way to go and only takes like 2.5hours out of your afternoon and LASTS longer! #fauxlocs #locs #crochetbraids #crochethairstyles #naturalhair #freetress #freetresssoftfauxlocs #kinkyhair

New blog post AND video on how to perm rod curl Cuban Twist crochet braids✨🤸🏾‍♀️✨ I did it after wearing straight Cuban Twist for ✌🏾TWO✌🏾weeks and totally refreshed the style to be worn curly for another two weeks! #bombcrochetdaily #naturalhair #crochetbraids #cwkgirls #protectivestyles #cubantwist #curling #myhaircrush #curls #curly #freetress

And to answer everyone's questions including my own...No! Straightened Cuban Twist crochet braids are NOT stiff 🙅🏽You know I always have to conduct a #windcheck when it comes to #crochetbraids 😂 More on the blog today! #cubantwisthair #naturalhair #cubantwist #kinky #curly #protectivestyles #pressncurl

Cuban Double Strand Twist crochet braids makes you wish for the childhood days of full unmanageable textured hair✨🤸🏾‍♀️✨ this is before you straighten it out #equal #cubantwist #textured #kinky #curly #bighair #afro #naturalhair #crochetbraids #textured #protectivestyles

Taming of the Cuban Twist (a mixture of blow drying and flat ironing) - finally some textured straight crochet braids with a natural part and none of my hair left out!! 🙌🏾🙏🏾🙌🏾 more on the blog! #naturalhair #crochetbraids #cubantwist #cubantwisthair #straightcubantwist #curly #kinky #protectivestyles